Warroora Station, Western Australia

Rating: 4/5

Location: Warroora Station, Western Australia – Lat: 23 17 35 S Long: 113 50 39 E

Hey there, my friend – this is Warroora Station (pronounced ‘Warra’) – a working sheep station perched on 50 kilometres of Ningaloo Reef coastline on the edge of the World Heritage listed Ningaloo Marine Park.

After we left Point Quobba, we drove back to Carnarvon to fill our water tanks and buy some fresh fruit and vegetables for our trip north.

There are many signs as you drive northward in Western Australia warning that access to fresh water is limited and most of the towns rely on desalinated water for drinking.

We sang along to a selection of music from the 70s and 80s as we shared the highway with large trucks and lots of caravanners. Lucky for them, they couldn’t hear our sweet honeyed tones!

We turned left off the highway onto the Warlu Way, passed through the Tropic of Capricorn and took the northern road into Warroora Station. There are anthills on the road into the station which are as tall as a person and are as wide as they are high.

There are various camping options at the station. There is beach camping at the northern end of the site but the caravans are lined up so close to each other, it looks like a crowded caravan park.

Further south, there are also some beach sites that are a bit more private but they are limited to a two week stay and the caretakers advised us that they like to put families in there during the school holidays. If we had selected one of those spots, we’d have to move just as the holidays began and would likely be relegated to a camp area well back from the beach.

We compromised (if you can call it that!) with a beaut spot at ‘The Ridge’. That’s our caravan pictured just behind the grassy dune in the photograph below.

It is a wonderful spot to sit in the evenings and watch the sun being swallowed like a sweet circle of butterscotch into the ocean where the world’s edge meets the horizon. Once the sun disappears, the evenings cool down significantly.

 

The beach is a mix of rocky reef, crushed shells and sand and the water colour is spectacular.

 

 

 

There’s no chance of keeping Indy out of the water on a warm day and Patch was not far behind him.

With the Western Australia July school holidays around the corner (yes I know, it doesn’t seem so long ago that we had the last lot of school holidays), we decided that we would spend a few weeks at Warroora and get a few things done.

Things like making sure that the sea stayed salty; the tide rose to the correct levels; the sunrises were on time; and that the sun continued to set in the west.

Of course, Kev was also tasked with the more difficult but critical job of ensuring that there was always enough beer in the refrigerator to toast each day’s sunset.

We’ll be here for a few weeks and we’ll explore the rest of the station so I’ll give you another update with more photographs soon.

Until then sweet friend, may you find enough time in your busy, wonderful life to spend it doing nothing.

Cost: $15 pp pd/$37.50 pp pw (due to increase to $20/$50 in July)
Dump point: Yes
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: Intermittent, Telstra OK with aerial
Showers: No
Toilets: No
Water: Non potable only

Point Quobba, Western Australia

Rating: 4/5

Location: Point Quobba, Western Australia – Lat: 24 29 22 S Long: 113 24 56 E

My dear friend, forgive my tardiness in loading this post.

Point Quobba is at the southern end of Ningaloo Reef and it has great beaches, good swimming, fantastic snorkelling, excellent fishing, abundant oysters, amazing blowholes … but poor and intermittent communications (even with an aerial).

We had to drive up to the lighthouse (quite a way from our campsite) to get phone and internet access.

 

We left Wooramel Station before 9.00 am (by George I think we’ve got a personal best on our hands) on Friday morning and headed into Carnarvon to get fuel, water and food. The further north we travel, food and fuel have become more expensive and water becomes more scarce.

It was around 100 kilometres to Carnarvon and another 50 kilometres from there to Point Quobba. While the trip was generally uneventful (read monotonous), there were many areas where cattle lingered beside the highway and we saw several who had swapped their final days at a abattoir for a last dance with a B-double. Poor creatures.

Luckily, with my carefully delivered instructions (don’t believe Kev if he describes it any other way), we made it safely to Point Quobba.

The Point Quobba camping area extends for approximately 2 or 3 kilometres along the beach with parts of it sheltered behind the sand dunes. The campsites further south where we finally parked, provide more room and protection from the wind – although still close to the beach – and we had plenty of space to ourselves.

While we couldn’t view the sea from our camping spot, we could see it from the top of the dunes or walk over them to get to the beach. No complaints from Indy and Patch!

However, it is quite a distance to walk from where we parked to the lagoon where camping spots were generally parallel to each other or set closely side-by-side. The lagoon is referred to as the ‘aquarium’ and the snorkelling is supposedly beautiful. If the weather was a little bit warmer, I could’ve been tempted to go in!

In one section of camping area, there are a number of corrugated iron beach shacks and abandoned caravans that look like they’ve been there since I was a kid. Within a year or so, the local council has increased the cost to camp at the site from ‘free’ to its current $11 per vehicle per night and it is due to rise even further from July 2014. The council will also put in place a 30 day maximum which will help to make the site look less like a shanty town where people stay for several months at a time. Maybe they’ll knock down the tin sheds too.

It is very sad but there were lots of plastic bags left in the dunes and on the beach as well as other remnants of the human touch. When we arrived at our actual camp site, there was the remains of a camp fire with a dozen or more cigarette butts stubbed out in and around the fire pit. What a shame to share our poisons and our plastics with the environment.

Our next camping location is a little closer to the reef and we’re hoping it is as good as it sounds from all the hype. We’re also hoping that it has reasonable access to telephone and internet!

Stay safe my friend and may your only Poison be an Alice Cooper song and your plastic the fantastic old fashioned LP record on which it plays!

 

Cost: $11 per vehicle per night (due to increase to $11 pp pn in July 14)
Dump point: Yes (but no water for rinsing)
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: No
Showers: No
Toilets: Yes (day area only)
Water: No

Wooramel Station River Retreat, Western Australia

Rating: 3.75/5

Location: Wooramel Station River Retreat, Western Australia – Lat: 25 44 27 S Long: 114 17 05 E

“Good morning, Mr Sunshine – you brighten up my day” sang the Bee Gees way back when; and it was indeed a bright day on Wednesday morning as we were leaving Goulet Bluff.

I thought I’d share a couple more photographs of the place with you (below) so you can see it at its beautiful best.

The wind had whipped up to a gusty 30 kilometres per hour so the beach was not the best place to be!

It’s about an 100 kilometre drive to the highway which leads north and another 80 kilometres from there to our next destination, a working pastoral station called Wooramel Station River Retreat.

We were fortunate to get a camp site beside the Wooramel River, surrounded by large gum trees. The only negative is that after years of drought, there is no river, just a river bed – but it is wonderfully picturesque nonetheless! Oh, that and the flies. There are lots of those little flies that go straight to your eyes, nose and mouth. Delicious…

The dry river bed does provide an enormous ‘beach’ for the dogs to run amok. The sandy ground gave our legs a good workout as we walked along the river bed that is embraced by an avenue of large, gnarly gum trees on it’s banks. There are several raptors nested in the tall trees near the campground and sulphur crested cockatoos frequent the area.

 

The delightful station owners are in the process of establishing the camping area and they’ve installed flush toilets and showers which are fed non-potable water from an artesian bore 350 metres deep. The campsites are spacious and there’s plenty of them. There are also tents provided – pitched and ready to inhabit – for those keen to experience the great outdoors in a tent.

Wooramel Station River Retreat is a great place to spend a couple of days. It has only recently opened and I expect that once word gets around, and particularly if it rains inland and the river fills, it will become a very popular camping spot.

There’s also a bunch of old vehicles and farm equipment to explore in a paddock behind the campsite.

Until next time my friend, may your rivers be full and your flies be few!

 

 

 

 

Cost: $12 pp pn
Dump point: No
Fishing: No (but would be if the river had water in it)
Phone/internet: Yes
Showers: Yes
Toilets: Yes
Water: Non potable only

Goulet Bluff camping, Western Australia

Rating: 3.5/5

Location: Goulet Bluff, Western Australia – Lat: 26 12 52 S Long: 113 41 36 E

We decided to stay our final night on the peninsula at one of the other 24-hour camps that I mentioned in the Whalebone Bay post. Actually, we thought we’d give the peninsula one more chance to get the sunshine out.

Alas, it was not to be. It rained. Quite a lot! What a wonderful excuse to stay warm and dry inside the caravan and watch movies! Although, watching movies does not make great travel blogging material!

Goulet Bluff is a wonderful camping spot and you can park on the beach next to the water. There are no facilities at the campsite and stays are limited to 24 hours.

We were the only people camped at the site. Although, it covers quite a large area so there might have been someone else parked above us on the rocky bluff.

Our next destination will be further north – warmer and with a little luck, drier.

Miss you already!

Cost: $10 per night
Dump point: No
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: Yes
Showers: No
Toilets: No
Water: No

Denham Seaside Tourist Village, Western Australia

Rating: 3.75/5

Location: Denham Seaside Tourist Village, 1 Stella Rowley Drive, Denham, Western Australia

Welcome to Denham my friend. I wish I could show you how beautiful the sea looks on a sunny day. However, it remained a bit cloudy and overcast during our stay and while Denham is a pretty town, she didn’t show us her best face.

Denham is located on the west coast of the Peron Peninsula and is the western-most town in Australia. The town is located in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area which covers 2.2 million hectares on the coast of Western Australia. They reckon that over 100,000 tourists pass through the region each year.

Camping on the peninsula is limited to either caravan parks or the overnight camps such as Whalebone Bay.

There are three caravan parks in town and the Denham Seaside Tourist Village is in a great location. It is also very popular and the best van sites are located on the lower levels of the park. Most of those sites are booked out at this time of year. Beggars can’t be choosers so we were happy with our site on the top level for two nights so we could unhitch the caravan and explore.

The white on the park’s ground looks like sand but it is actually crushed shell which is found on many of the beaches that we visited in the area.

We drove to Monkey Mia Conservation Park and Reserve which is also part of the Shark Bay Marine Park and a World Heritage site. It is located 25 kilometres north-east of Denham.

Monkey Mia’s main attraction is the bottlenose dolphins that have been coming close to shore for a feed since the 1960s. Initially, it was the local fishermen who fed them but now it is performed and closely controlled by the Parks and Wildlife rangers.

Monkey Mia has long been on my bucket list and I had visions of us standing knee-deep in the azure blue sea, hand-feeding the wild dolphins and getting a little more information about what they meant by the number 42. You’ll have to Google the dolphin feeding I’m afraid – we missed it and we’re still in the dark about life, the universe and everything!*

I thought I’d put a picture of a dump point here. I’ve mentioned them throughout the blog and before we started our journey, I’d never heard of them. I’m guessing that if you haven’t been camping or caravanning recently, you may not have seen or heard of them either – so here’s a picture of Denham’s dump point.

If you want a more graphic explanation of its purpose, Kev’s Dalveen experience last year will give you the gist.

Until next time, take care my friend and may your days be filled with sunshine – both metaphorically and physically. (Unless your living in a drought ravaged area in which case I wish you metaphoric sunshine and actual drenching rains!)

* Reference to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Cost: $42 per night powered (less Top Tourist Park discount)
Dump point: Yes
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: Yes
Showers: Yes
Toilets: Yes
Water: Yes

Whalebone Bay camping, Western Australia

Rating: 4/5

Location: Whalebone Bay, Western Australia – Lat: 26 07 46 S Long: 113 38 27 E

“Please give me one more night, give me one more night …” One More Night – Phil Collins

About 140 kilometres north of Tamala Station and one easy kilometre of dirt road from the highway is Whalebone Bay.

Whalebone Bay is one of four camps south of the town of Denham (and nearby Monkey Mia with all its wet and wild wonders) which includes Goulet Bluff, Fowler’s Camp and Eagle Bluff. All four camps are controlled by the local council and are strictly limited to a 24 hour stay – policed diligently by the local parks ranger.

 

You can stay only 24 hours at only one of the camps (in a consecutive period) and you must prepay before you set up camp. Geez, OK already!

That’s our caravan at the top of the picture on the left. What a top spot! We would have loved to stay another day or two.

Shark Bay and its surrounds provide a continuous array of visual delights and the scenery from the peninsula road leading to the camps is breathtaking.

When we arrived at Whalebone Bay, we didn’t unpack too much for our one night stay – just our outdoor chairs and a couple of beers to enjoy while we savoured the outlook from our campsite.

Kev threw a line in but while the big fish weren’t biting, the view was delectable!

Sunset cast its spell and the sky unveiled a kaleidoscope of colour and cloudy reflections for the evening show.

As always in Western Australia, there is 1080 poison around the campsite so we had to be careful with the dogs to make sure they weren’t tempted by what would be their last meal of poison-laced dried meat.

Until we talk again my friend, may you spend each and every 24 hours somewhere magical with someone special!

Cost: $10 per night
Dump point: No
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: Yes
Showers: No
Toilets: No
Water: No

Tamala Station, Western Australia

Rating: 3.75/5

Location: Tamala Station, Western Australia – Lat: 26 40 25 S Long: 113 42 54 E

Hello again my friend and welcome back to Western Australia’s Coral Coast.

Tamala Station is approximately 350 kilometres north of Kalbarri and located in the Shark Bay World Heritage region. It is an active pastoral station and its history dates back to the late 1800s.

The station owners also provide several camps which are dotted along the coastline adjacent to the station – some are suitable only for tents or camper trailers. Camp 7, where we stayed, has plenty of room for several caravans but there was only us and one other at the site during our stay.

Have a look at the station map on their website – it will give you a bit of perspective as to the location and the camps. Here’s the link.

We filled the highway part of our trip north with great music and terrible singing. We turned the car stereo up loud and our out-of-tune voices gave heavy metal band Metallica a run for their money as we belted out “Turn the Page”. The song will never sound the same to me again.

The turnoff to the station leads you to the final 40 plus kilometres of the trip which includes about 8 kilometres of bitumen – to lull you into a false sense of security – before you bounce along approximately 34 kilometres of corrugated dirt road. Talk about a tooth rattler!

We drove to the station’s homestead to pay our fees and get a key to the station gate to access the camping areas.

The owners were friendly and helpful and it was great to know that there was no 1080 poison or strychnine laid anywhere near the camp sites.

Like it or not, they use it to kill both wild dogs and rabbits and for the dogs, they lace raw meat with it. We’ve found it very common in many camping areas around Western Australia.

 

Tamala is a great place to relax, unwind and do nothing but stare at the sea. Then again, it is always a good time to do nothing and stare at the sea!

The beach is a mix of brown sand and white seashells and the water is crystal clear and clean.

In and around the camp area, there are lots of sharp, prickly seeds which make walking around bare foot impossible. However, even with footwear they were impossible to avoid completely. While the dogs’ paws seem to have toughened up significantly since the start of our journey, the three pronged thorns still seem to find a soft part of their pads in which to stick. Ouch! At least the beach provided a thorn-free reprieve.

 

While it is a beautiful place and we enjoyed our stay, I’m not sure whether it is quite worth the arduous journey on the corrugated road in and out of the station while towing a caravan. In fact, the campsites on the station where caravans are unable to get to are some of the most spectacular and according to Kev, would be much better for fishing!

Kev caught a sand shark and a small bream but both went back in to fight another day!

Apparently, all pastoral leases in the area will be reviewed in 2015 and some will be revoked and returned to state ownership. There is a possibility that camping areas on some of the sites will no longer be available and will certainly not be available for those of us with dogs if the stations are designated as national parks. How fortunate we are to be able to enjoy this amazing region before that happens.

Until next time my friend, may your paws be tough enough to withstand life’s thorns.

Cost: $15.20 per adult, $8.60 per child, $10.80 per retiree/pensioner ($50 key deposit)
Dump point: No – but OK to dig a hole and bury it
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: Yes, limited
Showers: No
Toilets: Long drops at some of the camps
Water: Non potable at some of the camps

Murchison River Caravan Park, Kalbarri, Western Australia

Rating: 3/5

Location: Murchison River Caravan Park, 92 Grey St, Kalbarri WA 6536

Kalbarri is a very beautiful town located on the coast and at the mouth of the Murchison River – approximately 600 kilometres north of Perth.

Apparently, its population of around 1,300 swells to about 8,000 during the peak holiday seasons.

We have discovered that the further north we travel in Western Australia, the fewer dog-friendly options we seem to have for low cost and free camping.

There are many camp sites in National Parks where we are unable to go with the dogs as well as roadside rest stops which are usually just truck pull overs. However, we want to make the most of the amazing coastline so we’ve found that we need to chase the moths out of our wallets and pay the piper.

We stayed at the Murchison River Caravan Park which is in a great location across the road from the river’s beach and quite central to the town’s shops and cafes.

Perhaps it is because of the wealth of tourists during peak seasons that the park management doesn’t feel like they have to try too hard. The park’s facilities are jaded – and while that generally doesn’t really bother me – the bathrooms near to our camp were not clean – at any time of the day.

More importantly, two out of the three available plug holes in the power point on the fence into which we had to plug our power had burnt out and electrical plugs could no longer be inserted. The power box into which one would normally plug their caravan’s power was filled with two old and faded extension leads from one of the cabins on the site. Dirty facilities are disappointing. Unsafe facilities are unacceptable.

However, Kalbarri is still a wonderful town to visit. The weather has warmed up and the sun hasn’t stopped shining since we arrived. A drive along the coastline provides so many photographic opportunities – none of which can be captured completely with a camera. We saw a large pod of dolphins just off the coast and over the next few months whales will be sighted from the shore.

Our next stop is on a working sheep or cattle station close to Shark Bay and we’re not sure how much phone and internet reception that we will have from the campsite. If you don’t hear from us, don’t worry – we’ll be back online as soon as we can to give you an update.

Until then my friend, I hope your safety switch does not trip!

Cost: $37 per night or $33.30 per night with Top Tourist Park membership
Dump point: Yes
Fishing: Yes
Phone/internet: Yes
Showers: Yes
Toilets: Yes
Water:Yes

Linga Longa farm stay at Lynton Station, Northampton, Western Australia

Rating: 3.5/5

Location: Linga Longa farm stay at Lynton Station, Northampton, Western Australia – Lat: 28 12 41 S Long: 114 18 16 E

About 60 kilometres south of Kalbarri is a wonderful farm stay at Lynton Station called Linga Longa, a working sheep and cattle station with a beach across the road and the Pink Lake nearby.

The owners, Greg & Jenny Poett, are friendly and laid back hosts.

 

 

Lynton Station is an historic site that was established in 1853 as a convict hiring depot and a station homestead. While it is a shame that the restoration of the convict ruins has been done using modern materials with a modern finish, it is still an interesting place.

It was Friday of a long weekend in Western Australia when we arrived at the station for a two night stay. We were the only caravanners there during our stay so we had plenty of space and privacy.

When we first arrived, I took a walk around to check out the facilities. The picture to the left is a very old fashioned long drop toilet and it was the first thing I saw when I started my look around – I thought it was the facilities. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to find three clean, flush toilets as I walked a little further!

The facilities are not new, but they are clean and the showers are great.

We didn’t get a close look at the camp rooms but I expect that while they also appeared old, they are likely to be clean.

Linga Longa has a soothing vibe and we enjoyed the gentle lowing of the cattle as they grazed in the nearby paddocks.

A couple of farm dogs wander around the station as well as chickens and partridges. At least, we think they were partridges. What I do know is that they are fearless and Indy became quite excited every time they came near the caravan. They were not put off by his excited yelping and when they saw us, they thought we were going to feed them and rushed toward us. No! Stop!

We took a walk to the top of the hill behind the station homestead where a metal statue of a guy on a motorbike stands. Apparently, he was a previous owner who had passed away some time ago and was passionate about riding his bike around the station. The view from the top was spectacular.

 

Western Australia is a windy place and in many places, the trees appear to tell that story. However, we were told that the salt from the ocean wind kills one side of the young trees which then grow prolifically on the other side make them appear to have been blown into a leaning position. I still reckon that the wind has to have something to do with it!

We took a drive to Kalbarri on Friday to pick up a parcel at the post office and had lunch at a little dog-friendly restaurant called the Black Rock Cafe. We were quite taken with Kalbarri and while our initial plans were to spend only those few hours there, we realised that we needed a bit more time to really get a feel for the place so we decided to spend a couple of days in the town after we’d lingered longer.

The town’s tourism slogan is “You’ll love it!” so I’ll let you know soon if we do.

Cost: $15 per night unpowered/$20 per night powered
Dump point: No
Fishing: The beach is a short drive away
Phone/internet: Yes
Showers: Yes
Toilets: Yes
Water: Yes